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Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade is the second novel and fourth story in the Lord John Series by Diana Gabaldon. It was published in 2007.

Plot[]

Seventeen years before, Grey’s father, the Duke of Pardloe, shot himself, days before he was to be accused of being a Jacobite traitor. By raising a regiment to fight at Culloden, Grey’s elder brother has succeeded in redeeming the family name, aided by Grey, now a major in that regiment. But now, on the eve of their mother’s remarriage and the regiment’s move to Germany, comes a mysterious threat that throws the matter of the Duke’s death into fresh relief, and brings the Grey brothers into conflict with the past, and with each other.

Grey has other conflicts to deal with. A new stepbrother—and brother-in-arms–proves to be an acquaintance from the London shadow-world of mollies, the homosexuals whose nature is a capital crime. His mother is guarding a terrible secret. And the key to the truth seems to lie with Jamie Fraser, a Jacobite prisoner—and the man who has haunted Grey’s thoughts since the eve of Culloden.

Barbarian, enemy, and dour Scot he may be, but Fraser has one overwhelming value to Grey. He is the only man John Grey can trust.

From barracks and parade-grounds to the battlefields of Prussia and the remote fastness of the Lake District, Lord John’s struggle to find the truth leads him through danger and passion, ever deeper, toward the answer to the question at the center of his soul—what is it that is most important to a man? Love, loyalty, family name? Self-respect, or honesty? Surviving the battle of Krefeld and the noisome cells of Newgate, he returns at last to the Lake District where Jamie Fraser is held, to find the truth and face a choice between honor and life itself.

Summary[]

In London 1758, Lord John Grey and his brother Harold Grey arrive at their favorite club, The Society for Appreciation of the English Beefsteak, to meet their soon-to-be stepfather, Sir George Stanley. Lord John is astonished when Sir George introduces his stepson from an earlier marriage, Percy Wainwright, and Lord John recognizes him as a man he had sex with six months ago. The pair arrange to attend Lady Jonas’ salon the following week.

John goes to a meeting at Westminster, where a fight breaks out between Bernard Adams and several other officials. Afterward, Hal and John visit his office, where John sees a page from his father’s journal on the desk. Hal reacts angrily and throws it in the fire. Their father, Gerard Grey's reputation had been severely tainted by a financial scandal in 1719, and he died in an apparent suicide in 1741, the night before he was to be questioned about suspected Jacobite leanings. In the wake of the tragedy, a then-15-year-old John was sent to live with family in Aberdeen, while Benedicta and Hal minimized the scandal and repaired the family reputation. John privately believes their father was murdered and falsely accused. Hal tells John that he believed Benedicta had burnt Gerard's final journal and is visibly alarmed at the prospect of being in the hands of someone outside the family. Hal promises to discuss the matter with their mother but does not want John involved.

Hal asks John if he knows solicitor Melchior Ffloulkes, Private Harrison Otway, or Captain Michael Bates, explaining that the three are rumored to be involved in a “sodomite conspiracy” to undermine the government. Otway and Bates have been quietly arrested, while Ffloulkes shot himself.

Moments later, Hal and John come across a body outside of White’s. They bring him inside, and a Dr. Arthur Longstreet treats him and identifies him as a Henryk van Humperdinck. After treating Humperdinck, John learns from Longstreet that a month after their father died, Hal publicly staked 20,000 pounds on his father not being a traitor. John, who has always believed their father to be falsely accused, is hurt to learn that Hal did not confide in him.

John and Percy meet at a coffeehouse and flirt heavily before walking to Lady Jonas’. John asks him about Ffloulkes, but Percy appears not to recognize the name. John tells Percy a little of his father’s history, including the fact that one of Gerard Grey’s closest friends was arrested as a Jacobite plotter, and supposedly named Gerard as a co-conspirator. However, he died before the case could be brought to trial.

Late that night, John and Percy walk to Hyde Park before parting for the evening. Moments later, John is attacked by a pair of robbers. They run off when he recognizes them as Raphael and Michael O’Higgins, a pair of Irish deserters.

John is met at Argus House by Minnie, who tells him that Captain Michael Bates’ mistress Mrs. Tomlinson came by asking for Hal’s help in Captain Bates’ arrest. Hal himself has gone to Bath inexplicably.

After learning of Geneva Dunsany’s death in childbirth, John travels to Helwater to see her grieving family. He is struck by the odd mood at the Dunsany home. He comforts Isobel Dunsany and meets Geneva’s son, William, for the first time. On a whim, he pays a visit to the chapel and nearly trips over a grieving Jamie Fraser. John later speaks to Jamie and asks him if Gerald Grey was among the Jacobite conspirators known to Jamie. Jamie answers in the negative.

John learns that Michael Bates attempted to murder Bernard Adams than escaped to Ireland. John returns home to London, where he flirts with Percy and speaks to his cousin Olivia about her upcoming wedding. Under questioning from John, Benedicta confirms she was sent a journal page of her own but falsely claims to have burnt it.

John meets Percy to get a new uniform fitting, as he has bought a commission within John and Hal’s regiment. On the way home, John is attacked while walking with Percy near Neal’s Yard. John is treated by Rabbie MacNab and Nessie at their nearby brothel. Both John and Benedicta interpret this attack as a warning to their family, possibly from one of Gerard Grey’s alleged co-conspirators.

At the behest of Minnie and Captain Bates’ mistress, John visits Bates at Tyburn and learns that the spymaster Hubert Bowles may have interfered in the arrests. John watches Bates hanging at Tyburn the next day, and his beaten by the other spectators for trying to hasten Bates’ death out of mercy.

To explain his injuries from the Tyburn mob, John tells his mother he was run down by a mail coach. This backfires when Benedicta, convinced her sons are being targeted to silence her, breaks off her engagement with Sir George. After John explains what really happened, Benedica and George reconcile with George and the two are married on February 27th. During the ceremony, Olivia goes into labor. John and Percy help deliver the baby. The two have grown more close in the weeks before the wedding, and are sleeping together regularly.

John, Hal, and Percy travel with their regiment to the Rhineland. Hal has learned that the evidence used against their father ostensibly came from their father’s old friend, Jacobite Victor Arbuthnot. However, Arbuthnot has sworn that he did not accuse Gerard of the same thing, and that Hubert Bowles falsified the testimony. John also tells Hal that their father was murdered.

Later, John and Percy get into a skirmish with a small group of French soldiers. Though Percy kills two men, he makes several near-fatal mistakes. Afterward, Percy is shell-shocked and embarrassed by his lackluster performance, but John tells Percy he’s proud of him. A month later, John walks in on Percy having sex with Michael Weber, a German private. With two other officers as witnesses, John has no choice but to immediately order both men arrested for sodomy.

A devastated John asks for leave to visit his old friend Stephan von Namtzen, who happens to be the commanding officer of Michael Weber. Stephan is severely depressed, and confesses to John that he killed Michael Weber personally to spare Weber's family the shame of a trial. John comforts him.

When John returns to camp, a beleaguered Hal gives John a pistol to give to Percy, saying it would be "better for everyone" if Percy killed himself to avoid a trial.

John visits Percy for the first time since the abrupt end of the relationship. Percy claims to love John, though John doesn’t believe him. However, Percy also states that Weber knew of Percy's promiscuous past and blackmailed him into sex. Several days after this conversation, Percy writes to Joh, and confesses that he had unwittingly helped orchestrate the attack in Hyde Park by accepting a bribe to bring John to Groverner's Gate after Lady Jonas's salon. Percy tells John that the attack was orchestrated by "Mr. A," a powerful man who was previously Percy's "protector." He further states that one of Mr. A’s closest associates is a surgeon attached to the regiment. John and Hal quickly conclude that the associate is Dr. Arthur Longstreet, the doctor they met at White’s.

Before they can act on this knowledge though, the Battle of Crefeld breaks out. John is severely injured by an exploding canon.

After several months of recovery with Von Namtzen, Lord John returns to England. He is still severely weakened and isolated from any news about either the front or their father's case.

John, still mentally and physically drained, visits Dr. Henryk van Humperdinck and immediately recognizes him as the man whose body was found in front of White's. Dr. Henryk van Humperdinck confesses to John that he was planning to meet Dr. Arthur Longstreet at White’s that night.

The abruptly reenergized John visits Dr. Arthur Longstreet, who confesses that he'd called Dr. Humperdinck that night to treat his (now deceased) cousin George Longstreet. He also tells John that George Longstreet was a secret Jacobite, and in contact with a man called "A." Though Dr. Longstreet helped conceal his cousin's allegiances, he also intentionally left the pages of the journal for the Grey family to find, hoping that they would notice the mentions of Victor Arbuthnot on every page and “justice” would be served. However, Longstreet is genuinely surprised to learn that Grey's father was murdered, and has no clue as to the murderer. John leaves only partially satisfied.

Meanwhile, both of the other witnesses in Percy's upcoming trial have died, leaving John as the only witness. John knows that to refuse testify will save Percy's life, but will ruin his family's honor as well as his own. He visits Jamie at Helwater for advice. Jamie tells John that it would be dishonorable to condemn Percy for a crime John himself is guilty of. However, their conversation devolves into a bitter argument about John's sexuality and Jamie throws a punch at John. Before John departs Helwater, Jamie cryptically tells John he believes him to be in "pursuit of a wild goose." John initially interprets this as a taunt, but later realizes it refers to an Irish Jacobite called Lord Symington.

John bribes the O'Higgins twins to smuggle Percy out of Newgate. When the O'Higgins brothers return from smuggling Percy to Ireland, they give John a note from Captain Bates. In the note, Captain Bates reveals that Bernard Adams had bribed and coerced Foulkes, Otway, and Bates into helping him smuggle documents, then after he'd taken custody of the documents himself, used his influence to have the other three men arrested. John concludes that Bernard Adams is also Percy's "Mr. A."

He races to Adams' house but learns that the man has recently departed for a meeting with Benedicta Grey of all people. John races to their rendezvous, but finds his mother alone, awaiting Adams' arrival with evidence of his treason as well as a pistol. John learns that Benedicta has been following Adams' trail on her own, even blackmailing an old acquaintance, Gilbert Rigby, to extract Adams' name.

John promises to find Adams on his mother's behalf. Thanks to the O'Higginses, he learns that Adams is at the regimental offices and confronts him. He threatens him and stabs him in the eye to emphasize his point. A cornered Adams signs a confession.

Afterward, Hal collects on his old wager and the Grey family attends the christening of Minnie and Hal's newborn daughter Dorothea Grey.

Characters[]

Book Covers[]

References[]

See also[]

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